An outstanding contributor to the ‘Apollo Society’ outside of Egypt. Unfortunately, the talented Tunisian poet died at a very young age of heart disease before he was able to publish his single volume of works, ‘Songs of Life’ (Aghānī ‘l ḥayāh). Where al-Shābī fell short in quantity he made up in quality, his works are known to be the climax in the romantic poetry of the Arab world. Major themes in his poetry revolved around nature, existence, human suffering in life, his questions about death, and most importantly, rebirth and redemption after life and death. This final theme is prevalent in his poetry as his medical condition became especially severe. Poems such as ‘Sad Evening’ and ‘In the Gloom’ were followed by ‘New Morning’. It is in this transition that we see al-Shābī overcoming the fear of death and truly embracing the idea of victory and renewal that comes after.

Lebanese poet, artist, and philosopher who immigrated to New York near the end of the 18th century. His most famous work is ‘ The Prophet ‘ which has been translated into over forty different languages. An interesting fact about Jibrān was that he wrote most of his poetry and other literary pieces in English rather than his mother language, Arabic.